Peter Cain

I have a suspicion that some questions are being asked and answered by the same person.  The questions are posted anonymously but the responder seems to be selling services or product in direct response to the question.

Hopefully you have a means of blocking a user posting anonymously from answering his/her own question.

If you can't, your platform will end up losing its usefulness.

I have just joined and have just come to this.  Geoff is spot on.  I would make four comments.

The fact that more and more mining leaders are financial/accounting guys (I would add lawyers) makes the choice even more difficult, as most of them don't have a clue what goes on outside the C-suite.  This makes their ability to make a sensible decision on technology questionable at best (though they probably know which smartphone they are buying next).  A good test is to ask them to change the clock on the mess microwave. 

Second point.  Never, ever, ever buy a prototype for a mine site.  That is worth saying again.  Never, ever, ever buy a prototype for a mine site.  If they offer it for free, run away faster, because they obviously haven't managed to sell it on its merits and they are desperate.

Thirdly.  If your crews don't want the technology, I can guarantee it will end up at the bottom of a dump, pond or shaft within a short time. The management skill and key to success is getting them to believe that they have wanted all along or it was their idea in the first place.

Lastly, the time from first use to economic break even is proportional to the sum of the number of separate systems on the kit, the number of tools required for maintenance and the number of pages in the operations/maintenance manual.  If you can fix it with vice grips and a hammer it will pay back in a day or two.  If you have to buy all kinds of fancy diagnostic tools and send everyone off on training courses you have lost already.

Hope this helps.